Privacy policy
Loonie Pincher, a free grocery price comparison app for the Greater Toronto Area. Last updated: 13 October 2026.
Who we are
Loonie Pincher is a free, non-commercial, community-run app with no advertising, paid features or sale of data. It is not associated with the Royal Canadian Mint. It is run by [YOUR FULL NAME], Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Privacy questions: hello@looniepincher.ca. We are responsible for personal information under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
What stays on your phone
Photos of receipts and shelf labels are read by the app on your phone and then discarded. Your saved receipts, shopping list, stores and settings are stored on your phone. None of this is sent anywhere unless you share it.
What we collect when you share
| Information | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Store, branch, date, and for each line the item name, pack count, size, price, barcode, shelf item number, price signal (for example clearance), regular price and sale end date | To compare prices for everyone | Everyone using the app |
| Shelf-tag photos you choose to attach. The app crops them to the tag, blurs faces and removes location data before upload; the server re-encodes them again | To show that a deal is real | Everyone using the app |
| Your Loon number (for example "Loon #482113"), trust score, points, tier and badges, and which weeks you opened the app or shared a price | To credit your contributions and keep the price data trustworthy | Your Loon number and tier: everyone. Trust score and weekly activity: you and us |
| If you reach the Flyway Scout tier and choose to: a nickname, an avatar, and a profile photo you upload | To let experienced shoppers be recognised by name | Everyone using the app. You can remove them at any time |
| Votes ("still there", "gone"), Made-in-Canada answers, reports of posts | To confirm prices and remove bad ones | Totals only |
| Which account shared which price | To trace and remove spam or fraud | Only us |
Your phone number
Sharing needs a Canadian mobile number, checked once with a 6-digit code sent by text message. Your number is used to send that code and is then discarded. We keep only a keyed one-way fingerprint of it (an HMAC), so the same number can't create a second account and a banned number stays banned. The fingerprint can't be turned back into your number without a secret key that exists only on our server. We never show your number to anyone, and we can't contact you with it.
What we never collect
Your name, email address, contacts, precise location, payment or loyalty card numbers, receipt totals, or the rest of a receipt's text. The app has no advertising or tracking code.
Service providers
| Provider | What they handle | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Hawk Host Inc. | Runs our website, server and database | Canada (Toronto) |
| Twilio Inc. | Delivers the sign-in text message (your number and the code) | United States |
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Runs our domain's DNS and email forwarding, stores shelf-tag photos and database backups (R2), and runs the quick human check (Turnstile) before a sign-in code is sent, which sees your internet address and basic browser information | United States and other countries |
| Open Food Facts | Product names and photos looked up by barcode (only the barcode is sent) | France |
| MapTiler AG and OpenStreetMap | Map images and store locations. Your phone asks them for map pictures (and sometimes nearby store locations) directly, so they see your internet address and the part of the map you look at, not who you are | Switzerland and other countries |
Some of these providers are outside Canada, so information they handle may be accessible to authorities in those countries under their laws.
Internet addresses
To stop abuse we limit how often one connection can send requests. For this the server keeps a one-way fingerprint of your internet address combined with the hour, and deletes it after two days. Like any website, our host may keep standard access logs for a short time.
How long we keep things
- Profile photos: until you remove them or delete your account.
- Full-size tag photos: until 30 days after the deal ends (at least 45 days after posting). A small preview is kept for about 13 months, then deleted.
- Shared prices: kept for price history. If you delete your account, they stay but nothing links them to you.
- Sign-in codes: deleted once used or within a day. Sign-ins on a phone: until you sign out, or after a year without use.
- Database backups: 30 days.
Your choices and rights
- Stop sharing at any time in Settings, Sharing. You then keep only your own prices.
- Delete your account in the app (Settings, Account, Delete my account) or on the web at looniepincher.ca/delete-account. This removes your points, photos and sign-ins.
- Access or correction: email us with your Loon number (shown in Settings, Account).
- Complaints: contact us first. You can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Children
Loonie Pincher is not intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information.
Security
All connections use HTTPS. Phone numbers are never stored. Access to the moderation tools is protected by a secret key. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected users and the Privacy Commissioner as PIPEDA requires.
Changes
We'll update the date at the top when this policy changes and point out important changes in the app.